Picks and Pans: Movies

Sometimes I'm a sucker. Give me a cute premise about the Easter Bunny (Hugh Laurie) running a Wonka-esque candy factory and passing the torch to his ingrate son, E.B. (Brand), and I'm sold. It helps that Brand puts a hilariously snarky voice performance into his big-eyed rabbit. But Hop, a live-action/animation hybrid, is more fun than smart. When E.B. runs away from home he finds Fred (Marsden), a human buddy who's equally aimless but a touch too bumbling. As Fred tries to hide him from humans, he helps E.B. get on a TV talent show with David Hasselhoff (if there's logic there, I can't find it). There's also a pointless coup going down back at Bunny HQ, but kids won't care about that. If they giggle that E.B. poops jellybeans, don't despair-I laughed too.

Super is what might happen if Batman went psycho. Amiable dork Frank (Wilson) loses his wife (Tyler) to her scuzzy drug-dealer boss (Kevin Bacon), and something snaps. He gets a vision that he should fight crime as the Crimson Bolt, smacking evildoers (and some not so evil) with a pipe wrench. Soon he's joined by Boltie (Page), his unhinged sidekick who thrives on hurting people. As a mini-avenger, Page is about as manic as Wilson is contained, an unevenness evident throughout the film. Archly funny scenes are followed by twisted violence, visual effects come and go, and ideas get raised and dropped. Still, fanboys may appreciate the wicked comic-book satire.

Insidious

Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne | PG-13 |

REVIEWED BY RENNIE DYBALL

HORROR

Movies like this make me afraid to have kids. I mean, what if they turn out like Dalton, the young son of Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne), who falls into what seems to be a coma-but is actually something much creepier? Insidious is a modern, jump-out-of-your-seat frightfest with all the unsettling creepiness of classic horror fare. An incessantly scary ride.

BROADWAY STAR ROSE HEMINGWAY

DANIEL RADCLIFFE'S NEW LEADING LADY

ON KISSING RADCLIFFE IN HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

"It's good!" says the Philadelphia native, 27, who makes her Broadway debut in the musical comedy. "He's everything you'd dream of. But it was originally choreographed to be this very long, frozen kiss. We used to giggle through it. Sometimes we still giggle through it."

ON REAL-LIFE SPARKS

No way-she's a newlywed! Husband Geoffrey toured with her in Mamma Mia! A bonus: "We work out our audition songs together," she says.